Finding your voice/genre

[buildingcastles]

Mar 22, 2008, 6:15am, linziellen wrote:Hello all Over these last few weeks I have been writing as often as my daily schedule will allow. Three months ago I was writing songs that reading through now - even I can't figure out! It's amazing how much we progress without realizing it. Like learning a language through constant exposure. A lot of the time my ideas hit me when I'm not looking for them, then I take that idea and build on it but still depend greatly on what I personally like to listen to and on reasonably"safe" lyrics I think will work for others. I haven't necessarily been writing from the heart...apart from when I was spilling out all sorts of mind boggling junk.So now I've started to write in a more unique, personal way, keeping in mind that it has to be easy to follow and hopefully strike a chord with others...I feel much better for it. However I'm now questioning my voice! I'm looking at ways to develop what I have already into something a little different, something that's going to stand out from the crowd but then I might be forcing a style that's not natural...Bee Gees I once heard were just experimenting when they came across their unique high pitch! I think I have to go away and do some serious exploring!Do/did any of you struggle to develop your own style? At what point did you become your own fan, become confident in your way of writing, singing or whatever it is you do!?Hope that makes sense.Lindsey i think it's good that you're starting to write more from the heart. I think if you're going to write anything truly amazing, it has to be genuine. It sounds like you're going to be performing your own work, so the more it comes from your heart, the easier it will be to sing with confidence (at least, it seems like it should be that way). Just imagine singing your songs over and over, and thinking, "sure, people like this stuff, but is this really me? Is my heart really in this 100 percent?" IMO, you should write your music and seek out an audience to fit that, rather than seek your audience and then write to accomodate them. Reading other replies now, I see others have been saying this as well. I suggest listening to your favorite singers and also finding other singers that you haven't heard from yet. See what you really like about their style and try to take elements from different singers and if you can, put your own spin on them. You said you have 3 different voices you can use but you don't know which is yours. Well, they are all three yours and there's no rule that says you can't incorporate all of them in your music. I might write more later, but I gonna run.

[linziellen]

Hey,Thank you for replying BC, I'm glad you brought this back into the light. I hadn't seen the last few posts. Cheers Devin and Debra! (Debra I'm going to send you a PM)I wanted to talk about the "Soul" thing again, what actually happened (now I look back) is that I found somebody who was singing the way I like to sing. I don't know what she's doing but I like to do that too, it was good to finally discover that I might fit in somewhere...I needed something to cling to I guess. I'm constantly listening to music on the net, in fact I've come to realise that from time to time I really benefit from putting the headphones down! Music drives me to write, I'm inspired by it and even write while I listen. Then I'll have a day or so of silence and probably crumble under the influence of the voices in my head "You're not good enough, you have no idea, you can't sing". I try to write and nothing feels right, put my pen down, give it up as a bad job and switch off...that's when I get ideas. Next thing I know I'm sat with another song in front of me, whether good or bad it's at least another brick in the wall I can tell which ones are truly "me" but a lot of them are started and I'm not able to finish them. I can't quite figure that out Some of the ones I never felt close to have been filed away, can't even sing them anymore! One thing's for sure - I keep logging into Taxi, without you guys I'd be totally lost. Thank you for the support. Linzi